In Triple Play service, there are multiple service terminals in a home. At present, there are typically three terminals: one is a modem terminal for Internet service, one is a Set Top Box (STB) terminal for TV service, and another is a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) terminal for Voice service. Different terminals have access to network equipment of an operator through a same network device, such as a Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) and a Home Gateway (HG).
A Triple Play user may have access to a network of a Network Service Provider (NSP) through a fixed line, and can be provided with a service from an Internet Service Provider (ISP). A currently used method is such that the NSP batch-dispatches fixed users to the ISP corresponding to the users directly with lines of the users through a tunnel, such as a Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS), Mac in Mac, and QinQ. As an increasing number of ISPs provide the Triple Play service for end users, this fixed line based batch-dispatch makes it very difficult for the NSP to accomplish extensibility of a network and facilitated deployment of a service.
The DSL forum has proposed a method by which a personal service can be transferred transparently through a tunnel to a remote service processing device of the ISP, such as a Provider Edge (PE) device with provision of a data service, a TV service, and a VoIP service. by binding of the user (layer-1 Q or layer-2 Q) with the VPLS or a Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) tunnel through static configuration, by mapping the VLAN having access to a user into the corresponding VPLS, or by the N:1 method for VLAN.
In the Triple Play service, however, an end user may select different ISPs, provided that the user and an ISP reach an agreement with respect to the selection of the ISP. Typically, an ISP identifier is set directly in a terminal device (e.g., a set top box) to distinguish the ISP. A network service provider typically has already established for different ISPs Multi-Protocol Label Switching Virtual Private Network (MPLS VPN) channel (such as VPLS) for transferring transparently something to the end user, which inevitably requires that those different terminals in the family have to be online by adopting a same port, VLAN or inner layer or outer layer VLAN. This method may be limited largely in practical operation due to stringent and inflexible network planning. Additionally, this method requires strong association of a user with his physical location. Once a service provider is changed, the network has to be planned over again or configuration of an access device has to be changed, which may be disadvantageous to practical operation due to a high maintenance cost.